Saturday, January 23, 2010

Time To Kill The Seventeenth Amendment

Despite the hype of Scott Brown's miracle, one fact flew under the Conservative radar: It's time to repeal the Seventeenth Amendment of The Constitution. (Yes, I promised not to write anymore Scott Brown columns, but if Chairman Obama can break promises anytime he damn well feels like, I'm sure you'll permit me a little lattitude, right ?)

For those of you who were punished with a public school "education", the Seventeenth Amendment allows for the direct election of Senators for the Imperial Senate. The Founding Fathers (you know, the crazy, old, white, Right Wing Extremists that founded this country much to the dismay of Ed Schultz.) wanted to keep as much political power in the states' hands as possible, so they originally had state legislations appoint Senators. Each state had its own method of choosing its own Senators, so occaisonally there was gridlock and accusations of corruption. (Sort of like the poltical climate we have today, except back then, there wasn't an MSNBC to take sides.) Finally, in 1906, the direct election controversy came to a head when David Graham Phillips wrote an article called the Treason of the Senate for the magazine Cosmopolitan. (No, we're not talking about the same Cosmo that Rachel Madcow should be reading. Granted, most Right Wing Extremists are ungodly grotesque, but they should not allow Madcow on the air looking like that. Her dozen or so viewers should not have to look at that every night. A little payback for those teabagger comments.)

The article was scathing, accusing Senators of being in the pockets of financiers and industrialists. (Think of David Graham Phillips as the first annoying leftwing blogger.) It proved to be popular and was turned into a series of articles, and the idea was born for a Constitutional Amendment for the direct election of Imperial Senators. The amendment was ratified on April 8, 1913. Thus, Big Government was born after killing its parent, Federalism.

Unfortunately, this system has not worked out well at all. The state governments have been neutered by the Federal Government and are completely useless, like Keith Olbermann. The unintended result of The Seventeenth Amendment is the fact that the states are now subservient to their Federal masters since they have no representation in the Federal Government. This has meant all kinds of bullying by Uncle Sugar over the years, like the now defunct Obamacareless. Had the Senators actually have to answer to their legislatures, Obamacareless would never have left committee, since it was one giant unfunded mandate. Under the old system, there was cooperation between the Federal government and state governments. Now the only cooperation that exists between the Federal and state governments is "Do it our way or starve". Uncle Sugar has thought nothing of beating down the states by witholding funds. The Antisemitic Peaunt Farmer did it back in the '70's to enforce his 55 mile per hour speed limit. George W. did it with his No Child Left Behind nonsense. God only knows what Chairman Obama still has up his sleeve. The point is, the direct election of US Senators has put too much power in the greedy paws of the Federal Government, and the only way to fix the Big Government problem we have is repealing the The Seventeenth Amendment.